Port Authority re-directs grant to Gateway tunnel work

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine. View our privacy policy.

Thank you!

Your email address has been successfully added to the Trains Industry Newsletter

Current plans call for the rehabilitation of the existing 106-year-old tunnel and the construction of a brand new double track tunnel connecting New Jersey with New York Penn Station.

Gateway Program Development Corp.

NEW YORK CITY — Surprise! Nearly $300 million that would have gone to a bridge is instead being tunneled — um, funneled — to the long-delayed Gateway Project.

The change is possible after the New Jersey Economic Development Authority agreed to
provide up to $600 million for a new Portal North Bridge spanning the Hackensack River. The project is part of $1.5-billion cost split between Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. The $600 million contribution, on behalf of NJ Transit, more than covers the agency's share of the bridge work enabling the port authority to use $284 million in low-cost federal infrastructure loans elsewhere.

On June 28, the port authority officials announced during a meeting that the agency’s they'll now use the loan as a contribution for the Hudson Tunnel Gateway Project instead. The tunnel project is expected to add capacity to the Northeast Corridor and give Amtrak breathing room to repair existing century-old tunnels that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The project is expected to cost in the billions of dollars.

Steve Sigmund, of the Gateway Program Development Corp. said revised funding for the Hudson River tunnels will help the most urgent infrastructure project in the nation.

“Today’s action shows our project partners continuing to take the steps they can to keep the Gateway program moving forward," Sigmund says.